1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of nutrition management. More specifically, the invention relates to recommending food items to meet nutritional needs of a customer based on a nutritional profile for the customer and food item nutritional information.
2. Related Art
When a customer shops online or at a store for groceries, that customer may desire to purchase food items that meet their nutritional needs or the nutritional needs of their family. A food item's package generally has a nutritional table printed on the package. For a non-packaged food item, such as a produce item, it is possible to get nutritional information from an online source such as a government agency, a consumer group, a store or other entity. Thus, nutritional information for individual items is generally easy to retrieve and can be stored on computers, cell phones, tablets and other such devices.
Even more to customer useful is aggregated information that combines the nutritional information for multiple food items. Aggregated information can be used to help a customer meet their overall nutritional requirements. However, the time and effort required to aggregate nutritional information from different food items can be relatively time consuming. As such, many customers lack the time and/or desire to invest in aggregating nutritional information for multiple food items. However, without aggregated nutritional information, it can be challenging for a customer to determine what food items to purchase to meet their nutritional requirements.
In some cases, different family members may also have different nutritional needs based on age, height, weight, food preferences, and medical problems. As such, aggregating nutritional information to satisfy nutritional needs of a family can be even more burdensome. For some customers, cost is also a factor. Thus, in general, it is challenging for a customer to purchase food items that meet the nutritional needs of their family and do so while considering all the factors that influence that purchase.